Samsung Instinct SPH-M800 (black, Sprint)

Pros: Easy to use design, nice user interface, comes with a backup battery

Cons: Video and Camera is a little lacking

Summary: I was a 6 year Tmobile user and wanted to get an iPhone 3G but I was told about this sprint instinct as well, after comparing both phones I will tell you why I decided on the instinct. I will mention though the camera is only 2mp and the video I took was meh, but that wasn't an important part of my decision making because I don't use my phone for that much.

iPhone Vs Instinct

Memory - The instinct only comes with 2gig chip but since it is cheaper than the iphone you can buy an 8 gig chip and come out even.

Battery - The iphones battery is built in, a major complaint even with iphone lovers, you have to PAY apple to replace your battery once it is junk. And for anyone who has ever owned a phone, you know the longer you own your phone the less charge time you have. The instinct actually comes with a spare battery and a charger so you can be charging your battery while still using your phone.

Computer interface - The best thing about the Instinct is NO ITUNES! I really hate itunes, I love my ipod shuffle for the gym but wish it didn't need itunes. As long as you have your USB cable you can easily transfer media, from and to on any computer with a USB port without downloading software. If you are technically challenged and like itunes, samsung has bundled a media software with the phone that is just like itunes.

Service Provider - If you research Sprint vs AT&T you will see that Sprint gives you a little more bang for your buck. For instance, if you where to chose similar rate plans for unlimited internet, you will find that with ATT texting is not included, you have to pay EXTRA to buy a texting package. I would think most people who have these kinds of phones would be doing a lot of texting, especially if you are buying this phone for a teenager. With Sprint unlimited texting was included in the price, I basically saved myself 240 dollars a year by not having to buy this service with ATT, hmm maybe with my savings I can buy a new iPhone to piddle with.

So in short as much as I wanted an iPhone, the instinct proved to be the winner for my choice in more ways than one, I just couldn't justify spending extra for an iPhone.

Updated on Sep 18, 2008

Wanted to add that I went on vacation and I fell in LOVE with the GPS, it helped me get around town to shop/eat, You can even rait these places. The only flaw I saw, was when I was comparing it with mapquest it was an hour off I was wondering why. But near the end of my trip I was on I40 and it looks like I was veered off on new construction, my GPS basically told me I was off course and it looked like I was driving off road. You could tell that this part of I40 was fairly new construction, once that part ran out my GPS found me back on the old I40 and it recalculated my time and shaving off almost an hour off my destination. Mapquest 1, GPS 0

To be fair at the very end of my trip mapquest was off, it wanted me to turn on a road in 8 miles to the right but the road was only 3 miles long and I could go right or left, so I went right. I fired up my GPS and it told me I was going the wrong way, it got me back on course and guided me to the Motel
Mapquest 0, GPS 0

Updated on Apr 2, 2009

Well, I have had this phone for 8 months now, no major complaints. I have only locked it up maybe twice which is surprising because any other phone I had I locked them up way more often and they had didn't have the near the functionality.

I am still in love with the GPS, I don't know how I ever lived without it, it's so easy to only get step by step directions but it's easy to find the numbers of local businesses around you, very helpful when McDonalds messed up my order. I recently bought a blue tooth head set, it was easy to set it up, I was up an going in a snap. Another great feature is the "Push To talk" you can program the phone to recognize your speech pattern to get better results. When you do you can simply push a button and say things like "Dial Mom at home" and it calls my mother, it also works with thing functions like GPS.

Updated on Apr 2, 2009

The internet seems to have gotten even faster recently after they did an update on their phone, another big plus. I can easily sign into things like facebook and myspace to do updates, I can even sign in photobucket and upload pictures directly from my cell phone. I like the email function too, I have my yahoo set up on it so it automatically pulls in my new messages, I have it where it alerts me if I get new email.

Other useful features I use a lot is the Alarm clock, I love how customizable it is with letting me set if I want the alarm to go off daily, once, or M-F, or Sat & Sun, and I can customize what ringtone if any goes off per alarm and the volume of the tone. The calendar is really nice as well, I can program in my doctor appointments and such and have it throw up an Alarm to me to remind me I have to be there. I really love the streaming TV too, of course the quality isn't what I consider awesome but it is decent.